Discovering that I no longer care what genre music is from, just whether I like it or not. (say hello to Eminem and Saturday Night Fever in my music collection)

Pity I got lazy near the end of the year-it did cost me. Well, this year, I hit 30 on May 11th, I will pass the CFA level 1, get my DMS, generally kick ass and fergeddabout the names and God willing, find a wife.BCM // 2:22 PMAdd a comment

Monday, January 13, 2003:

"Instead of pricing coming down, the industry is opting to make it more expensive," says Glorianne Stromberg, a former securities regulator.

Despite poor performance and rising costs, fund redemptions have been far lower than you might expect. There appears to be a bifurcation of investors into two camps: knowledgeable value-oriented investors and oblivious victims.

The more populous camp contains investors seemingly oblivious to the impact of high MERs and who trust the supposedly "independent" financial advice they get from integrated manufacturer-distributors and bank "wrap" accounts.

Held separately, actively managed mutual funds in Canada are expensive enough: the average MER in Canada is 2.16%, compared to just 1.44% in the United States, according to Moshe Milevsky in his recently published book, Wealth Logic.

[...]
As Rudy Luukko wrote recently in the latter, the median Canadian equity fund has an MER of 2.78% and returned an average annual 0.1% over the three years ended Oct. 31.

That's an incredible figure -- 2.78% is 16 times higher than the 0.17% MER the Barclays i60s ETF charges for equivalent exposure to Canadian blue chip stocks. A median 2.78% MER means half of Canadian equity funds have MERs even higher than 2.78%.

So what? Every 1% paid in fees and charges reduces your end capital 20 years later by 20%, Stromberg says. So a 2.5% MER will eventually cut the end capital you would otherwise have had in half

Mmmm hmmmm. There's a nifty little calculator to check out the effects of different levels of MER on your long term return. Check your funds and see what sacrifices your future lifestyle is making to keep the fund managers in theirs.

SEOUL, South Korea Provided North Korea stops its nuclear weapons development, the United States is willing to consider energy aid for the communist country, a U.S. envoy said Monday.

The comments by Assistant U.S. Secretary of State James Kelly raised the possibility that the United States was willing to make a deal with North Korea to resolve concerns over its nuclear activities.

"Once we get beyond nuclear weapons, there may be opportunities with the U.S., with private investors, with other countries to help North Korea in the energy area," Kelly said at a news conference in Seoul.

"Fold" "Cave" "collapse" "craven appeasement"

I cannot believe that the US is caving into this blackmail. I am so deeply dissapointed I don't know where to start.

I'm hoping the Vodkapundit can explain how this is all part of the fake out that he was always pointing to regarding Iraq.....

I sat there and didn't bother saying anything in return. Inside I was sniggering. The headlines out of the UK the day previously had been of the orders for British deployment of troops and ships to the Gulf. Blair's statement the following day was nothing but a cheap, meaningless bone thrown to his Labour party supporters, the UN and the other appeasers like my coworker.